I think you can check for Acidity with Litmus Paper like we did back in Jr.
Highschool science classes
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I think you can check for Acidity with Litmus Paper like we did back in Jr.
Highschool science classes
Did you ever get up to the river near and northwest of Cottonwood to look for Willow and Tree of Heaven?? Research I've done indicates it's there... just can't get over there myself.
From Cottonwood on up to Jerome should be the best areas, though there's probably some north and west of Jerome on the river as well...
Vettepilot
"Those who sacrifice freedom for security, have neither."
Benjamin Franklin. (A very wise man!)
It's a very nice ride for you and the little lady, especially this time of year. Go north to Cottonwood and turn left. Follow the river all the way past Jerome to Hwy. 69. Then turn left and go home through Prescott. If ya really want brownie points with the wife, stay the night at the Hassayampa Inn in Prescott, and take her to a play that evening.
Vettepilot
"Those who sacrifice freedom for security, have neither."
Benjamin Franklin. (A very wise man!)
I haven't been able to get out much thanks to Dental issues and lots of family issues.
But the weather and my teeth are getting better.
Maybe I will try to go hunting Quail up there this month.
Ha ha!! Not up to the Hassayampa and a play with the wife heh? I don't blame ya, though I got conned into going to one there once and actually did enjoy myself. Might have been the cocktails though...
Vettepilot
"Those who sacrifice freedom for security, have neither."
Benjamin Franklin. (A very wise man!)
I was wondering.
If you use garden sulfer that is High Acidic , can you just add a little baking soda to the water you use to separate out the Clay and other ingredients that are water soluble ?
Baking soda will neutralize most acids.
Well, I suppose. But any bicarbonate left will very definitely slow the burn down.
I gave up on garden sulphur, and only use the pure stuff from Duda Diesel. It's cheap, and worth the peace of mind, I feel.
If, after all the steps and work of making the powder, it's not quite up to par in some respect, then it's, "Was it the charcoal?" "Was it the sulphur?" "Was it the KNO3?" "Was it my method?"
It's enough work making it that I think only the best ingredients should be used, and variables eliminated, but that's just my thoughts...
Vettepilot
Last edited by Vettepilot; 10-04-2021 at 07:30 PM.
"Those who sacrifice freedom for security, have neither."
Benjamin Franklin. (A very wise man!)
Quote: The 'traditional' 1960s way of holding the firebricks in a form, is sheet metal folded into a box and spot welded. Unquote
Well, that right there would be a cool way to build it, but the cost of the sheet metal would choke you at today's prices!
Vettepilot
"Those who sacrifice freedom for security, have neither."
Benjamin Franklin. (A very wise man!)
Thank you I .J .
I get all my sulfer and other chemicals from Pyro supply companies.
But if there are rumors that certain Available Products are bad or less effective I want to have the info on this site in case there is a problem buying from chemical supply companies.
After all.
Aren't we all doing our own BP to be back to basics in case the world around us goes south politically.
Friend, its not the politics right now but the supply chain.Originally Posted by LAGS
The politics is awful, but I want to stop awfulizing things.
In CASE the world goes south politically?? Too late...
:~(
Vettepilot
"Those who sacrifice freedom for security, have neither."
Benjamin Franklin. (A very wise man!)
Yes. I am looking for some hardenable steel about 3mm thick to make a lockplate, but not winning. Here in the urban wastes there are very few places to find anything but mild or stainless.
My attempt to harden a frizzen with Cherry Red was a washout.
Lags;
On your sulfur deal, I'm thinking you can wash it with soda, if you feel it's acidic. Hot saturated soda water will help dissolve any contaminants that are in it, which are dissolvable. And, the Soda will freely rinse with pure hot water. However, Sulfur is an element and has no Ph value. It is neutral. If yours is contaminated you can rinse pure Sulfur all day and not hurt it. It will still be Sulfur. Soil bacteria break Sulphur down, and make Sulfuric Acid, and that may be how you associate it with being acidic. That is how you use Sulfur to acidify soil. Bacteria that is already there, and hungry, do it for you. I'm with Joe 100% on what he said.
One more thing, if you are around any Natural Gasoline plants, they may have a huge stockpile of Sulfur that they will probably give you, if you can get through the gate. Any place that has high Sulfur Oil and any place that refines Hydrogen Sulfide Natural Gas, have a huge amount of it, that they ship by truck and rail. Talk to the guy on the front end loader. He'll fix you up. Shipping and receiving may laugh at you if you ask for ten pounds. It would be easier to get a ton. haha
Last edited by DoubleBuck; 10-05-2021 at 12:00 AM.
That is kind of what I was thinking about higher acidic levels in garden sulfer.
It is not the raw sulfer .
It is acid in the things that they put in the sulfer like clay and other things to make the sulfer more Active in the garden.
But I am not the one who started bringing up acid in the sulfer.
I was just jumping in to find a resolution to fix any issues.
Lags;
I guess I missed the rest. I just caught your question. Man, take everything I say with a grain of salt. I worked in the oil and gas patch, and was born and raised there. I like the subject, but am no authority, by any means. The only reason I know anything about the Sulfur deal, is from working around poison gas (H2S) Down around Houston and Galveston, there are refineries there, that have piles of Sulfur that must cover ten acres and are a hundred feet tall. It's a shame we even have to buy Sulfur, really.
Coming from mining where pyrite is the main ore deposit mineral (with a bit of yellow metal contaminating it), acid goes with sulphur in oxidation reactions, but the 99.9 garden sulphur product is just phine in my results.
LAGS temperature-controlled charcoal method aiming to retain certain hydrocarbons has REALLY got me interested. My first two cooked batches were aimed to stop at 'the point the flame goes out' but because I wasn't burning the off-gas, it went past that point, cooking maybe two hours before the vent gave nothing.
Now I want to aim for well BEFORE the flame goes out. Also I want to burn the gas to reduce the offensiveness of the smoke. I expect that if I get it cooking (on a fixed gas burner), see what the temperature says, light the vent up, back off the heat when it gets over 550F, then turn it off at maybe an hour and a half after the off-gas changed from steam to flame.
If I got it right, there should be a brown look to a substantial portion of the charcoal.
Sound right?
I made my first batch of brown charcoal this evening.
I had a bunch of Black Willow that was debarked and dried out in my shop, for three years. I cleaned it up and tried the brown charcoal method.
It was made in my normal paint can retort, but I made it in my homemade grill/smoker. I built a hot kindling wood fire, and got a hot bed of coals. Put the air to it, until it got over 550°F. Set the retort in and cut the air off to the bed of coals. Maintained the temperature closely to try to keep it at 500+ degrees. I got flammable gas/smoke about 15 minutes later. I kept it low for another 15 minutes and checked the vent. It was smoking hard. So I pulled it and cooled it off, and was just about to pop the top, when it started draining creosote out of the retort. So, I put it back in the cooker another 15 minutes. It was really under pressure and the smoke was lighting only about a foot from the vent hole. I pulled it again, and started to pop the lid and again, creosote was running out, only slightly less, this time. Put it back in the cooker and left the air to it, and slowly rotated the can for about another 15 minutes. This time the flame had a lot of blue and was really whistling out the vent. I pulled it again and it fought me for ten minutes trying to keep it from igniting the charcoal inside the retort. I finally got it cooled down enough to pop the lid and the charcoal was ready. I pulled it all out, and broke every piece, to make sure it had evenly and thoroughly cooked. Some were harder to break but it was all shiny and had a brown tint in bright light.
I immediately pulled three grams of random pieces and did a ash test on it. 1.66% was as close as I could determine, after having to add another two grams of charcoal to get enough ash to accurately weigh. Definitely under 2% ash.
I'm greatly pleased with my totally accidental first time results. I carefully placed my largest pieces(1"-1 1/4") next to the edges of the retort, with the smallest (3/8"-5-8" diameter) in the middle. They all are very uniform, and all have the shiny brown hew to them. And, it doesn't smell like any other charcoal I've made. It smells like creosote strong.
I've ground some, but it is going to take a minute, because this is several degrees more hard, than other charcoal I've made.
The picture is from my last batch of Paulownia charcoal (2.3% Ash) made my traditional way, which is to stop the cook, when the fire dies down to a small flame. And, a random piece of the new brown charcoal. It is dramatically different, for sure. And, the coal cooked to ash very quickly.
I can't wait to get some testing done with it. It needs to be substantially better, to justify the PIA it required to do it. Much more tedious to cook and prepare. I have multiple tests to compare it to, with the same wood, cooked my old way and some good chronograph testing as well. I hope it turns out as good as it looks like it might.
Now I don't know exactly what formula to use, but figure for the first test, I will use the 75-15-10 ratios and try to optimize it later.
The retort produced 486.7 grams of charcoal, which will make 7 pounds 2 ounces of powder in the above formula. I'll post results as they become available.
Last edited by DoubleBuck; 10-05-2021 at 04:22 AM.
There it is! Good stuff double buck! Make sure its all charcoal and there isn't uncooked wood in there, that seemed to be a problem for me until recently. I tried a new batch yesterday with 78-13-9 and it may still have excessive moisture but its not giving high velocities, only around 700 fps compared to the swiss 760 fps.
When i test burn my powder with higher amounts of potassium, it burns instantly but at the risk of sounding foolish it makes a "shoof" sound compared to the swiss powder that makes a "puff"or "thump". The swiss powder makes more gases i think. I think i need to increase the amount of charcoal to potassium ratio.
Another thing to note, when you change the ratios, the resulting powder seems to have a different weight for given volume, this powder was milled extremely fine, but only gives 29.5 gr of weight for a 30 grain volume.
Last edited by almar; 10-05-2021 at 12:03 PM.
This is the book the guy refers to and uses in seamonkey's video:
https://books.google.com/books?id=F6...page&q&f=false
for those interested in the charcoal...check out the chapter on charcoal page 26.
Last edited by almar; 10-05-2021 at 03:20 PM.
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